When materials research group TNO asked the Eindhoven University of Technology graduate to join its project printing food, like chocolate and candy, she declined. "I refuse to work with chocolate and sugar," she says. "If I were to work for them, I'd use this technology in a good way. I think you should look at actual food."

Rutzerveld has spent the past year working on Edible Growth. The future-of-food concept involves 3-D printing spherical bits of food using material that acts like tiny baskets for fertilizing seeds, producing two layers of food, grown on the spot. It's a new spin on locally sourced, sustainable food: one that involves very little surplus of uneaten food, and one that gives consumers an up-close, tangible connection to where their food comes from.